Meeting minutes for July 2013

Attendance

Present:   Laura (recording minutes), Celia, Jen, Kevin and Joe (new recruit!)

Absent:  Katey, Ginny, Paula

Recruitment

After discussing Joe's potential membership (more below), we talked about recruitment more generally; given the co-op's current use patterns, we think it would be healthier if more people joined and seek to renew our recruitment efforts.

We will schedule a playground meetup once we have a few nibbles. Celia already has one; Jen is thinking of another. Everyone should be on the looked out for stressed out parents who need a sitter! We discussed our geographical restricts in terms of where we get new members from, and basically it comes down to an ad-hoc "well, what works for us?" case by case basis.

Incidentally, we talked about doing a social media blitz in an effort to get new members—which is scary, because we know that there are members of communities real and virtual who would like to join, but who we don't want to join. Talk fizzled out at that point. In the meantime, please send out the link to our brochure site  (http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com) to interested potential members, and if you would like to throw a few flyers in strategic locations, here is one. By the way, the language in both of these recruitment tools is a couple of years old, so if you see something that needs to be edited, it probably does. Let Kevin or me know and we will make the changes. 

Sit offers

At the last meeting we talked about changing procedures so that sitters could offer up potential sits. Laura's one sit offer had no takers, but we agreed to keep trying them out.  The group basically OK'd any manner of sit requests, but for recordkeeping, we should continue to track sit offers on 30boxes (even if it is in parallel with some other system, like doodle) as we may include offering sits in the criteria for what determines non-use. 

Non-use

It has been pretty high! Let's use us! Relatedly, Kate is going to reach out to Paula to see if she is still interested in being in the co-op. 

Voting

Technically, we need unanimous approval to admit a new member, but meeting attendance has not made this possible in over a year. Yes, we need to vote on Joe/Brooke joining the co-op, but we may need to consider modifying the unanimity rule, given our collectively low meeting attendance of late. Katey, Ginny, Paula, do you trust the rest of us to vote in your best interest? Or would you prefer to hold off til the next meeting or social meet up to meet him and his family? 

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is on September 16. We are also trying to organize a recruitment/social meetup for late August/ early September.

Meeting Minutes for Sept. 19, 2011

Present: Eric, Celia, Jen, Ginny (secretary), Katey, Laura (leader and minutes writer)
Absent: Kate TT (fined two points)

1. We discussed Karen's departure from the group and a stupid accounting error that I, Laura, did. The upshot of that was that we used 10 points from the bank to balance out Karen's points. All members agreed to this, and we will also disperse the remaining points from the bank next time we can do it without fractions.

2. The question "how is the co-op working for you?" on the table. There have been a lot of changes for families and the group itself (people leaving and returning from work, children going to school full-time, etc) and with Karen's departure it seemed like a good time to recalibrate. Answers ranged from "it could be better" to "too unclear to tell right now, ask again later."

3. Given that there is room for improvement, it looks as if we will be not starting a recruitment drive so much as asking around. Recruitment is headed up by the Leader, but as we're a co-op and these things are dynamic based on you and who you know, we should all be scouting potential victims and chatting them up subtly. If you know anyone who you think would work well in the group, and whose children would, please let them know and refer them to our public website for interested potential members. http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com/ Potential recruits named were Abigail, the Dads, and Allura. Start networking/chatting! Workable geography is helpful - Jackson Heights is, sadly, probably a bit far.

4. Basic reminders to everyone went about responding to sit requests in a timelier fashion, as we've all be dragging a little on it. Please remember to leave a comment in the sit request when you are responding "undecided" so that it's clear you've responded.

5. We postponed any major conversations or decisions about reducing our "administrative costs" by eliminating a secretary, but we did basically all agree that our goal wouldn't be to be to ditch the person who oversees/cheerleads/facilitates so much as merge that position in with the Leader's. Laura promised to have more concrete proposals on the table by the next meeting. That is good, because after Ginny finishes her term at the end of October, we have no more secretaries scheduled. If we follow precedent, it will revert back to oldest-serving member first, so the new cycle would be two month consecutive stints in this order: Eric, Celia, Jen, Katey, Kate, Laura (I can't do it between Eric and Celia b/c I will still be leader then.)

6. Small note: please remove Karen from your buddy list in 30boxes, to avoid confusion.

7. The next meeting is slated for Monday, Nov. 21, which is Thanksgiving week. Please note it in your calendars now, as it will likely be a busy time for us all.

Recruitment Tools for Leaders

NOTE: THiS PAGE IS UNDERDEVELOPMENT FROM LAURA.

PDF FLYER

Here's a website for them to read all about us. Please keep THIS website, our most personal private secretest one, under your hat.
http://babysittingcoopinfo.blogspot.com/